The furore over the passing of Proposition 8 continues to rage in parts of America, and the debate over who is to "blame" for the passing of the proposition persists. With some gay rights supporters and activists continuing to assert that it was the increased numbers of African-American voters at the polls on election day that tipped the balance in favour of the proposition, the tensions between the two communities (although the African-American and gay communities are certainly not mutually exclusive) are running high.

Although black voters do not make up enough of the population in states such as California (where they total 6.2%) to have been entirely responsible for the passing of Prop 8, many in the gay community, and those outside of it, seem unable to understand why 70% of California's African-American population would have voted against same-sex marriage.

The right of a same sex couple to marry, some gay rights activists claim, is a civil rights issue on a par with the civil rights issues faced by African-Americans who should, therefore, be a great deal more sympathetic to discrimination faced by gay people. Discrimination is indeed a civil rights issue, but should the black civil rights movement be compared to the gay rights movement? And, more importantly, is such a comparison even necessary?

Some African-Americans, who tend to hold conservative views when it comes to such matters (according to a Pew research poll taken in June, more than 50% oppose both civil unions and gay marriages), are offended by the comparison. Writing in the Boston Globe, columnist Jeff Jacoby echoes the thoughts of many when he says:

The civil rights once denied to black Americans included the right to register as a voter, the right to cast a ballot, the right to use numerous public facilities, the right to get a fair hearing in court, the right to send their children to an integrated public school, and the right to equal opportunity in housing and employment. Have gay people been denied any of these rights? Have they been forced to sit in the back of buses? Confined to segregated neighborhoods? Barred from serving on juries? Subjected to systematic economic exploitation?

Gay people, some African-Americans say, do not and have not faced legalised atrocities, and their human rights have been protected by the law in a way that black people's have not. Being black is not something you can hide in the same way that you can if you are gay, nor is it – as some believe homosexuality is – a choice. Not only do some feel that the comparison trivialises hundreds of years of suffering endured by African-Americans, but many will say that they voted for Prop 8 – which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman - on the basis of religion or morality as opposed to homophobia.

Gay people can counter that argument by saying that they have also been treated as second-class citizens; they are often verbally and physically abused and are discriminated against because of who they are. They are therefore, like black people, a minority group that is being subject to the tyranny of the majority. They could also argue that religion and morality were used as instruments to justify slavery and the oppression of black people, in the same way that they are now being used to justify discrimination against gay people. The religious right is said to have played a large role in stoking up fears surrounding Prop 8.

There are valid arguments on both sides and there are many similarities, as well as many differences, between the nature of the African-American civil rights movement and the gay rights movement; and there is no denying that the former serves as an excellent model for other movements. However, the comparison - which is supposed to be based on a sense of solidarity - appears only to be deepening divisions, with the debate turning into an unhelpful and never-ending argument over which group's suffering or oppression is worse, as if oppression can somehow be ranked. It is also leading to the pitting of black against gay, forgetting in the process that there are in fact gay and lesbian people within the African-American community.

The debate is becoming a smoke screen from the real issue, which is that discrimination and a denial of civil rights, in any form, towards any group, is wrong. As Coretta Scott King said in 2000:

I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender or ethnic discrimination.

The gay rights movement does not need to be compared to the black civil rights movement – or any other movement - in order for it to be considered legitimate, or in order to elicit understanding of the issues from non-gay groups. I agree with Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, who said earlier this year in a keynote address at the 20th national conference on LGBT equality:

No parallel between movements for rights is exact. African-Americans are the only Americans who were enslaved for more than two centuries, and people of colour carry the badge of who we are on our faces. But we are far from the only people suffering discrimination – sadly, so do many others. They deserve the law's protections and civil rights, too.

Are gay rights civil rights? Yes. Is the gay rights movement the same in nature as the African-American civil rights movement? That really doesn't matter. The gay rights matter does not need to be clouded by debates about whether or not it is the same as the African-American civil rights movement. Discrimination is discrimination – let's not forget that all-important fact.

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